Roe’s Big & Lily Explores the Bonds and Burdens of Sisterhood

Interview by Ellen Birkett Morris

AUTHORLINK: Tell me about your apprenticeship as a creative writer. Did you have a mentor who offered advice that you can share with us?

The Inspiration Behind Big & Lily

ROE: I’ve been very lucky to find author friends and mentors who’ve been so generous with their time and knowledge. But the very first piece of advice came from my father who was an aspiring novelist when I was young and writing my nascent stories. He said, “write the way people talk.” That’s it. That’s all I got. But it was enough. It stuck with me all this time and shaped my writing voice.

AUTHORLINK: You worked as a creative director and copy writer. Have any of the skills cultivated in that work carried over into the writing of your fiction?

Writing Sisterhood and Birth Order

ROE: My job was to write thirty and sixty second radio and television commercials, so I had to make my point quickly and clearly. I needed to understand the message my clients wanted the consumer to hear and serve it to them in a way that was entertaining and attention-getting. That’s my goal when writing fiction—get across my deeper message in a fun and entertaining way.

AUTHORLINK: James Dickey said the idea for Deliverance came to him as a vision of a man standing alone on top of a mountain. His job was to get the man off the mountain. Where did the idea for Big & Lily come from?

ROE: A few years ago, I took a similar Alaskan adventure trip to the one Big and Lily go on with my thrill-seeking husband. I’d been to many outdoor destinations with him over the years, but this one was going to be the most challenging. The itinerary included; flying in tiny prop planes (I get terrible motion sickness, and I have a fear of heights), climbing an ice wall (angst about slipping on ice and again, the heights thing), and the possibility of a grizzly around every corner. Just like Big and Lily, I quickly found myself in over my head and out of my element to the point of becoming the main character in my own sketch comedy show. Although I ended up experiencing the trip of a lifetime, I needed to process the trauma (and comedy, traumedy?) by writing it into a book!

It’s funny you should mention James Dickey and the man standing alone on a mountaintop. One of my earliest scene ideas for Big & Lily was of the sisters, alone on a mountain and (spoiler alert) fighting in a way that escalates to one of them being pushed and falling backwards off the trail. My job from there on was to figure out what they were fighting about.

AUTHORLINK: Talk about why sisterhood is a rich area to build a story around.

ROE: As a Big Sister myself, I’ve always been fascinated with birth order theory and the more recent conversations around Eldest Daughter Syndrome. I’m a classic firstborn: in-charge, organized, goal-oriented, and reliable, with a skosh of perfectionism and a dash of anxiety. I wanted to write a story that let me delve deeper into the subject. I created Bridget (aka Big, short for Big Sister) so that she could do the work for me. I let her figure out whether being a second mother to her little sister was a lifelong commitment and whether she could rewrite her narrative if the one she’d carried with her all her life no longer suited her.

What I love most about these two wonderfully funny, enmeshed sisters is that even when they want to kill each other, they’d still die for each other any day of the week.

Literary Influences

AUTHORLINK: Who were your literary role models when writing Big & Lily?

ROE: My OG literary role model has always been Nora Ephron. I still have the original copy of Heartburn I read in the 80’s. I’m drawn to funny and smart authors. My current go-tos are Elinor Lipman, Ann Garvin, Amy Poeppel, Steven Rowley, and Erik Bachman—just to name a few.

Overcoming a Writing Crisis

AUTHORLINK: What was the greatest challenge when writing Big & Lily?

 ROE: During the drafting of Big & Lily I suffered a crisis of confidence. In the few years before I started the book, I ended my contract with my first publisher, saw two manuscripts die slow painful deaths, and left my then agent. I wasn’t sure I had the wherewithal to keep it up. But with the support of my family and writer friends, a few months off, and the fortuitous meeting a dynamic new agent who loved Big & Lily as much as I did, I was back!

 AUTHORLINK: Place is so very important to the book. Why did you choose to get the book in Alaska?

ROE: I came home from that adventure trip with my husband thinking Alaska would be the perfect backdrop for the story of two sisters who had a lot of issues to work out; why not in a challenging landscape to add to their drama! Alaska as a character itself can be so many things at the same time–a place to fall in love, challenge your mind and body, discover a new world, or risk your life. And in the case of Big & Lily, Alaska is a place to get lost and to find yourself again.

Advice for Apprentice Writers

AUTHORLINK: What advice do you offer apprentice writers about craft, staying encouraged in the face of rejection, or both?

ROE: There’s a great cartoon by the author and artist Debbie Ohi who illustrates the anxiety writers feel at every stage of their literary life. To paraphrase, “can I start, can I finish, can I make it, can I keep it up, will I be able to do it again, and then again?” No matter where you are in the process, there is always doubt, rejection, and worry about what’s next.

My advice is to build up your biceps and keep pushing that boulder up the hill. My debut novel was my fourth manuscript. I was sixty-two when it was published. So, you are not behind! And find your village—other writers get it, and we can empathize, kvetch with you, and cheer you on like nobody else.

What’s Next

AUTHORLINK: Discuss what you are working on now.

ROE: I just sent my agent what we hope will be my next book! It’s a humorous yet emotionally charged story about a woman and her grown son who find themselves living together again. Think Amy Poeppel’s MUSICAL CHAIRS meets Sara Confino’s GOOD GRIEF. Keep your fingers crossed that my publisher (and soon my readers) will love it!



Lisa Roe graduated from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and spent many years as an advertising creative director and copywriter in New York City before she accepted the tougher job of stay-at-home mom and turned to writing fiction — mostly to entertain her kids, but then to tell her own stories. A classic first born, reluctant empty nester, and Dr. Doolittle wannabe, Lisa lives in New Jersey with her husband, David and three incorrigible dogs. BIG & LILY is her second novel.